The Senate Tuesday justified the planned purchase of a 2023 model of Toyota Land Cruiser for 107 members at the contract price of about N160 million each.
This is in addition to the bullet proof vehicles being purchased for Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and his deputy, Barau Jibrin.
The move had generated heavy criticism, with some Nigerians lampooning the parliamentarians for being insensitive to the plight of Nigerians amid high cost of living.
The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) had said procuring SUVs for federal lawmakers was provocative at a time that most families can barely feed their members three square meals per day, and hospitals and roads are collapsing rapidly all across the country.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) also asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to stop the National Assembly from procuring and taking delivery of exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials pending the hearing and determination of the applications for injunction filed by the organization.
But the red chamber through its Chairman Committee on Senate Services, Senator Sunday Karimi (APC Kogi West) defended the purchase of the SUVs, saying lawmakers needed the vehicles for their operations.
Senator Karimi at an interactive session with journalists said the criticism was uncalled for as members of the other arms of government used similar vehicles.
He urged critics to beam their search light on ministers and members of state assemblies.
He said, “A minister has more than three Land Cruisers, Prado and other vehicles and you are not asking them questions, why us?
“The issue of buying vehicles for National Assembly members, you know, is a reoccurring issue. It occurs every assembly, it will always come up.
“If you got to state houses of assembly today, check out, most of them before they were even inaugurated, the governor would have bought vehicles for them; even local government chairmen. I drove the vehicle my local government chairman uses. So, why National Assembly?
“These vehicles that you see, go to Nigerian roads today, if I go home once, my senatorial district, I come back spending a lot on my vehicles because our roads are bad.”
Karimi added that the Senate settled for Toyota Land Cruiser against a local product after a comparative analysis of cost, technical issues and durability on Nigeria roads.
“We want something that we can maintain for another four years. It is not the decision of the senators alone, we did an analysis before arriving at Land Cruiser,” he said.
He disclosed that the Senate before inauguration of the 10th one in June this year, had a liability of over N16 billion that is made up of different things, including vehicles purchased for members of 7th, 8th and 9th assemblies.
